Special Issues-07-01-2017

In this study, general extract screening of food storage materials was done with nontargeted analytical methods to understand what analytes could potentially leach into food or beverages. GC and mass spectral deconvolution effectively separated analytes within the complex mixture and TOF-MS provided full mass range spectral data for identification. This workflow can be used for confident characterization of components present as extractables from food packaging materials.

There is growing interest in the determination of endogenous proteins in biological samples for diagnostic purposes, because a concentration increase or decrease of such proteins can allows us to monitor the state of a pathological condition such as cancer. Immunocapture LC–MS/MS analysis combines the workflow of conventional immunological assays with LC–MS analysis. This article describes typical challenges, such as cross reactivity and the mass spectrometer’s dynamic range, as well as the advantages of isoform differentiation and multiplexing.

Interest in connecting ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) to GC and especially to LC is now growing. One favorable property of IMS is that it can work with ambient pressure and can be easily connected to a gas or liquid chromatograph. Analytical applications of GC–MS and LC–MS are very different and encompass investigations into food, medical science, environment, drugs of abuse, chemical warfare agents, and explosives.

• Raptor C18 SPP 5 μm core-shell silica particle columns offer excellent resolution for fluorochemicals with short total cycle times. For even faster analysis, 2.7 μm core-shell particles are available. • Meets EPA Method 537 requirements. • Unique, robust Raptor C18 column design increases instrument uptime.

Utilizing Hamilton’s CO-RE® disposable tips with DPX technology provides a fast, accurate, and simple extraction method for analyzing drugs of abuse in urine. The Microlab NIMBUS equipped with a CO-RE 96-channel Multi-Probe Head (MPH) allows for high-throughput, automated sample processing.

In drug development, quantitative determination of a candidate drug and its metabolites in biofluids is an important step. The standard technique for quantitative metabolite profiling is radiolabeling followed by HPLC with radiodetection, but there are disadvantages to this approach, including cost and time, as well as safety and ethical concerns related to administering radiolabeled compounds to humans. Frank Vanhaecke and his research group at Ghent University have been developing an alternative technique, and he recently spoke to us about this work.

The US EPA monitors a variety of chemicals in water that may cause harm to humans or wildlife to minimize exposure.

We present a brief review of this year’s ASMS conference, which took place June 4–8 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Click the title above to open the July 2017 issue of Current Trends in Mass Spectrometry, Volume 15, Number 3, in an interactive PDF format.